It was noted that vicinal surfaces of Au(111) were unstable to faceting. The period of the faceted morphology was very sensitive to the step edge atomic structure and could vary from about 10 to 200nm. A scanning tunnelling microscopy study was reported which demonstrated that the 22 x √3 reconstruction of the Au(111) surface interacted differently with both types of close-packed step edges that could be found on a (111) surface: the lines of discommensuration cross {111} step edges and were stopped by {100} ones. This observation could be essential in order to explain the drastic change in the faceted morphology of Au(111) vicinal surfaces with different step edges. Furthermore, it was promising in the way of realizing original nanostructures on these vicinal surfaces. Preliminary results were shown.

Reconstruction, Step Edges and Self-Organization on the Au(111) Surface. V.Repain, J.M.Berroir, S.Rousset, J.Lecoeur: Applied Surface Science, 2000, 162-163, 30-6